the freshman have a very bright future...
a lot more depth on this team. Who stole kene and replaced him with a solid looking big guy ????
a lot more depth on this team. Who stole kene and replaced him with a solid looking big guy ????
team looks a ton more talented.......
- Thread starter mo cheeks
- Start date
Wish Parker Stewart would have stuck around. There’s a place on this team for a spot up shooter like him.
Love these freshmen! Should be a blast watching them develop over the next few years. If Capel can get a big or two we are going to have alot of fun as soon as next year.
Did Kene grow 3 inches in the off-season? I thought he was Brown at first. Other than the haircut, he looked pretty good - 7 points, 8 boards.
They have 5 new players who are more athletic than the most athletic player on last year's team.
As stated, Stewart would have a ton of wide open looks playing on this team. Stevenson looks so slow on this team; which wasn't the case last year.
Something else that stood out to me a little tonight, especially after the score was tied at 27 I think, was that Capel actually got these guys to play some solid Defense. Our guys are so much more athletic this year. Even Kene looked quicker and in better shape. Capel deserves alot of credit. I know it was only YSU but, our defense is going to keep us in games this year. It looks like rebounding will be a big issue once again. So much fun to see real athletes in a Pitt uniform again.
B.I.N.G.O.
And I like Stevenson. This team is far and away more athletic than last year's team.
One thing we noticed is that Capel does not seem to yank kids out of the game due to one mistake.
There were a couple of times that Jamie would have pulled a kid during a play, before the whistle had even blown.
I'm sure Capel will be a bit more strict with that once we have a few more games but at the moment it does not seem like Capel pulls guys in order to punish.
I'm not sure that's a valid point on a night when Terrell Brown got pulled later in the first half and never got back onto the court the rest of the night.
I don't think he was punishing Brown, I think he was rewarding Kene. There was a marked difference between the way Kene played versus any of the other bigs. Capel referenced it in the press conference, remarking that Kene changed the game for the Panthers with his energy on the boards.
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Partly, sure. But it's not like Chukwuka played the last 25 minutes or whatever it was straight through. He sat part of that time, and when he did it was Peace who came in and replaced him and not Brown. And it's not like Peace was doing anything special.
Brown went from starting the game to being the 3rd big in less than one half. I'm not sure how you can argue that was anything other than a benching.
I think people are reading too much into the rotation of players for a first game. I think he wanted to see some guys play and get them court time experience, particularly the younger guys. Davis didn't play much either, and I think he'll get more PT as the games move on.
I just think he played Brown early and moved on. He wanted to get Kene and Ilo playing time, so I don't think he was being benched. I'm not a Brown fan; I said all last year that he is just too slow, both in his physical movement and in his mental reaction time, to be very effective. And while he looked slightly better in this game, the same issue stands. But because of his size, which Pitt sorely lacks, he'll play a lot this year.
I think Brown has skills and could be a solid big, but he seems to play flat and tentative. No emotion and comes across as a lazy player. He was the same last year. Not gonna cut it with Capel unless someone lights a fire under his ass.
Best guard combo at Pitt in a long time. The quickness really stood out.
Best guard combo at Pitt in a long time. The quickness really stood out.
Stevenson's role on this team should be to gobble up as many offensive boards / easy putbacks as possible...ala Chevy Troutman. Problem is they run a different offense and he is only under the hoop a few seconds at a time, not running from block to block like Chevy did.
I'm pretty sure there were several minutes in the second half where Stevenson was the biggest man on the floor for Pitt. It seems Capel's message to Kene and Stevenson is that they are interior guys, not perimeter players. Kene seems to have embraced it, not so sure about Stevenson.
I can argue that it was other than a benching because I have connections on the team, and there has been no clear pecking order with the bigs at any time during this preseason. I've posted about this extensively on the pay board. In the Dayton scrimmage, Brown started, but Kene, Peace, and Brown split time, each playing around 15 mins apiece. The same was true in the UPJ exhibition, where Kene again got considerable PT and led the three bigs in rebounds.
I'm also aware of what's happening in practice, and it's a battle there day-in and day-out between the three guys. I've heard repeatedly that Brown has the least "go" of the three, less of a motor, and it's going to be reflected in the minutes. There are those inside the program who believe Brown will be 3rd on the depth chart by the end of the year.
Additionally, I don't believe Capel necessarily starts his best 5 players. I'm fairly certain he consider N'dir one of his top 5, but there are good reasons to bring players like Kene, Davis, and N'dir off the bench, to bring energy, stability, and patience when needed.
Lastly, I don't get posters' love affair with Brown. He has a few offensive skills, but absolutely no motor whatsoever. He can't defend. Can't rebound. And it's not a back-to-the-basket game anymore. Who cares that he didn't play last night. Kene was better. Subjectively and objectively. The only reason posters have a problem with that is because the vitriolic hate for Chukwuka that lingers from last season clouds people's judgment. There was no one on that floor last night that I was happier for than Kene. After the way he was roundly criticized and derided last year, he deserved to open the season that way. He played a good game. He wasn't just respectable, he played pretty darn well on both sides of the ball. He played with great energy, and Capel rightly praised his contribution after the game.
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Not sure Capel has the depth to afford him the luxury to yank kids. Let's see what he does when he has a veteran team with better options.
Kene played well last night. So much better than last year. It seems like Capel realizes he is better in the paint and not chucking up a three every once in a while. We have three players, maybe four, that can drive to the basket. That will open up opportunities for the big guys. In the first game, Kene played the best and finished the best at the rim. He was rewarded for that. I'd love to see him play like that consistently (even though I'd love for him to get a few more rebounds per game).
"Posters love affair with Brown" ??? I can assure you I'm not one of them,
and from what I've seen on here, neither are most posters. Most of us have
criticized his slow reaction time, his lack of a motor, and mental errors, not to
mention a limited skill set. Nothing I saw last night changed my opinion.
As far as Chuka goes, I admit I was one of those that had an extreme dislike
for his game last year. Seeing a 6'8" guy being allowed to fire up missing threes
game after game was enough for me to write him off as a waste. However,
since July, my posts about him were opining that Capel probably wouldn't
stand for that and would make him play inside and concentrate on defense
and rebounding. Well, look where Chuka is now. I'm not bragging about
having any great foresight, because IMO any half wit following Pitt Bball
could have come up with the same conclusion I had come to.
By the way, my posts since last night have all been about praising Chuka's
energy, hustle, and rebounding effort. I give him credit for the change and
give the REAL credit to Capel for making him play a totally different type of
game.
Yeah, I'm not sure where that comes from. Just like I'm not sure how anyone could rightly argue that a player who played eight of the first 15 minutes of the game including starting the game who then never came back in at all didn't get benched. The fact that some people think that Brown is going to be third in the center rotation by the end of the season doesn't change the fact that he started and played the most minutes of any of the centers in the exhibition game, was first in the rotation last night, and went from getting a slim majority of the minutes in the first 15 minutes of the game to getting zero minutes in the last 25.
You lack his connections-
So clearly you can’t trust your own lying eyes, and common sense
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